Skype for Windows Phone 8 has finally received some needed attention. Microsoft has just updated the official client, and the new version does away with logging in with just a Skype username and password.

Instead, version 2.16 now works with a Microsoft Account exclusively.

Another stroke of One Microsoft? While this is, technically, just another feather in the companywide reorganization cap, Redmond has been trying to move away from the old Skype username system for quite some time now. And it will be able to do so now.

Up until now Skype users on Windows Phone 8 had the choice of using either their Skype login or Microsoft Account credentials.

But as this post on the official blog explains, Windows Phone users can now access the Skype access with the same Microsoft Account information that they used to get registered when they got their mobile device.

Phone owners that have used their Skype login before today will now be required to sign into the app with their Microsoft Account email address first, before typing in their old Skype name and password.

This will be enough to link up both accounts together.

The company has also detailed some useful new improvements to go in version 2.16 of Skype for Window Phone 8. Prime among them is that the app now lets users know if someone is typing a chat message before it appears whole — a favorite feature on the desktop version of the VoIP client.